IT LOOKED as if captaining her country inspired Charnwood Athletic Club’s Gemma Steel as she stormed to one of her most impressive performances.

The 28-year-old captained the senior British women side in the Great Edinburgh Cross Country last weekend in the match against teams from Europe and The USA.

Steel stormed to an incredible win going round the 6km course in 20mins 35secs, nine seconds ahead of Ireland’s Fionnuala Britton who had won the previous two years.

Britton had tried to force the issue and race away from Steel, as she did the previous week in Antrim where Gemma finished sixth.

But this time the Whitwick runner, together with Emeila Gorecka, bossed it to claim an impressive victory for herself and the team she was captaining.

And it helped Great Britain to the team title with the new young hope for distance running Gorecka third in 20:51 on what was her senior international debut, Charlotte Purdue fifth in 20:59, Steph Twell ninth in 21:07 and Chloe Richardson made it six Brits in the top 10.

The success of the women helped ensure that Britain’s combined teams leapt from the bottom of the table to the top to win the event overall ahead of Europe and the USA.

Steel told the BBC after the race: “I had a nightmare last week so to turn it round in a week was really good.

“There was a bit of pressure there but you do it for the team and the women always pull it out of the bag at the end.

“It was quite slippy. I was quite concerned because I’d heard there’s a few tight turns but I managed to stay on my feet anyway and it’s a real achievement having not run the event last year.

“I was honoured to be the captain and to pull it out the bag and win is even better, it is the icing on the cake really.”